Tools Featured in this Teardown

Video Overview

Learn how to repair your iPhone 6 with this video overview.

Introduction

Double the iPhone, double the teardown! With the iPhone 6 Plus laid out for inspection, we turn our attention to the smaller iPhone 6—though at 4.7", it's still a giant among iPhones. What was so big that Apple couldn't fit it into the familiar form factor? Let's shake it out onto the teardown table and find out!

This year we're doing the iPhone 6 teardown in English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Nederlands, Русский, and 中文. Just click the flag icon to swap languages.

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We stood in some pretty long lines to get our hands on the new curved iPhone 6, and we couldn't be more excited to delve into it!

We want to send out a big thanks to our good friends at MacFixit Australia for letting us use their office in Melbourne for the teardown. They stock Mac and iPhone upgrades/accessories, and also carry our iFixit toolkits. Thanks MacFixit Australia!

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The camera bump, as it's widely known, is prominently visible along the top of the iPhone 6. Apple chose improved optics in exchange for a lens assembly that is slightly thicker than the rest of the phone.

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This step may feature the improper use of a boomerang, performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. Accordingly, iFixit must insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact any boomerang-related repairs performed during this teardown.

This is how to boomerang, right? We spoke with several Australians, and they all came to the same conclusion. This is how you boomerang.

Dude! Nothing's a joke. As apple uses special screwdrivers for their special screws, they use boomerang to completely detach the front panel assembly from the main unit. I tell you that was very difficult to figure out. But ifixit did it! _/\_

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While there may not be any Phillips screws on the outside of this phone, there are certainly Phillips screws on the inside. Fortunately, our Pro Tech Screwdriver Set can handle any type of screw this phone dishes out.

With screwdriver in hand, we tackle the metal bracket screws that secure the front panel assembly in place.

I understand you're trying to sell things, and that's ok, but it would be nice to explain how to open the phone without a specific $25 tool. I used to think of ifixit as the authority on repairs, but now I have to go elsewhere to figure out how to repair things without these specific tools.

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The iPhone 6 features an 1810 mAh, 3.82 V Lithium-ion Polymer battery with an energy rating of 6.91 Wh. Turning it over, the rating improves to 7.01 Wh! Perhaps the engineers were able to squeeze an extra 0.1 Wh in the battery after confirming the text on the front.

Apple preaches that this 28-gram (3.75" x 1.5" x 0.13") power pack will let you talk for up to 14 hours on 3G and offers 250 hours of standby time.

This is a fair bit smaller than the iPhone 6 Plus's 11.1 Wh, 2915 mAh battery—but still a notable bump from the 1560 mAh unit in the iPhone 5s.

This battery seems to have an identity crisis. On the front are markings of Apple South Asia (Thailand) Limited and Apple Japan. On the back, it says it's actually made in Huizhou, China.

I don't see an identity crisis for this battery, the Thailand and Japan text are next to mandatory regulatory marks for batteries in those countries (circled diamond logo and circled PSE logo). Between them is a UL recognised component mark (c reversed UR US mark). Presumable it is less trouble for Apple to apply for them through local subsidiaries.

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Good news, everyone! The rear-facing camera is easily removed with a pair of tweezers.

Though it lacks the fancy optical image stabilization of the camera in the iPhone 6 Plus, this unit shares virtually all of its other specs: 8 megapixels, f/2.2 aperture, True Tone flash, and phase-detection autofocus.

It also features electronic image stabilization, which aims to mimic the effects of OIS (optical image stabilization) using image processing techniques.

I too am interested in how the antennas are configured. Especially how they attach to the phone via the plastic connectors ... are these top and bottom sections removable? Would it be possible to swap them out with a different phones to come up with a different color scheme, among other things?

Somewhere in the teardown around this stage, this small piece came out and I don't know where from. Anyone know what this is?? It says, "00095-A" with a small box thing at the end of the character string. Thanks so much in advance!

That looks like the interconnect cable just below and to the right of the rear camera module. You can see it in this step. The teardown is not really meant to be used as instructions; for better results, use one of the many guides for the iPhone 6.

If we look on real iPhone 6 or 6 Plus board then we can see near of Gyro is available Accelerometer separated it look like on iPhone 5S, possible combo is used on Prototype board or some Chinese revision but global uses separated ic's of Gyro and Accel.

In Step 18, can you identify the chip at the far right of the board, sort of diagonally between the holes at the top right corner and bottom? It's the larger and bottom-most of the two chips at that end of the board, directly above the bottom hole. It appears to also be in the 6 Plus at Step 22 at around the same place on its board.

This seems to be an antenna coax cable with a miniature coax connector at the end. In the picture, it seems to have been "plugged up" with a small conductive foam piece, I don't see why that is necessary, except for preventing dirt to get in?

Actually nothing is plugged up—the foam lies on the back/top of the connector. Almost every cable connector in the phone has a foam pad on the top to fill the air gap between the connector and whatever lies above it. Helps keep it from jiggling loose while evenly distributing force over the surface of the connector.

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That's all folks. The iPhone 6 earned a respectable seven out of ten. Here's why:

Continuing the trend from the iPhone 5 series, the display assembly comes out of the phone first, simplifying screen repairs.

The battery is straightforward to access. Removing it requires a proprietary pentalobe screwdriver and knowledge of the adhesive removal technique, but is not difficult.

The fingerprint sensor cable has been re-routed, fixing a significant repairability issue with the iPhone 5s and making the phone much safer to open. (On the 5s, the cable is easily torn if a user is not careful while opening the phone.)

The iPhone 6 still uses proprietary Pentalobe screws on the exterior, requiring a specialty screwdriver to remove.

Apple does not share repair information for the iPhone 6 with independent repair shops or consumers.

NFC most certainly needs "coils" or a loop antenna to function. This is because of the load modulation defined in the ISO14443 spec. I suspect the antenna is likely the T308S flex shown in step 17 or perhaps integrated into the case using the screw contacts. It would be simple to verify by Ohm'ing out the antenna pins from the AS3922 and the headers from the T308S flex.

I think you should also give credit to the unsung hero.....the screw manufacturer! SFS Group in Switzerland derive more than 10% of their total revenue from Apple and provided around 80 parts in each iPhone 5/5S! Were there more or less screws in the 6?

On step 8 you show the home button to have a cable that seems like it connects to the main board .... is this something to take note of when opening it from that bottom edge? Home button in the past contacted to main board with copper springs and not an actual connector

A low cost Iphone case is available in Amazon. I have been using it for 2years. It is perfectly fit for Iphone 6 plus cover and easy access of all the phone device. This ultra thin flip case specially designed for Apple Iphone 6plus.

nice teardown... but it would had been nice to know where each screw goes... i had teardown an iphone 6 to change the frame and now all my swcrew are everywhere... was hoping to found where they goes here and boom, nope, a joking teardown... nice

We have a complete set of guides for you right here, including screw locations. Teardowns are just meant to be a fun peek at the hardware and overall repairability, and should not be used as guides. For keeping track of your screws I highly recommend a magnetic project mat—it's one of the best tools I own, and I would prefer never to open an iPhone without one.

We have a guide for that! The microphone next to the rear facing camera is part of the iPhone 6 Power Button Cable Assembly that you can purchase here. The guide to replace it can be found here. Good luck!

Would be nice if you included a photo of the main board with the antenna removed. There is a matching network under the antenna flex cable on the back of the board. If I had an image I could tell if one of the matching components had fallen off of my phone.

Resources

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